MUMBAI: Many businesses in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai closed yesterday as protesters from a low-caste community blocked traffic and shopping malls and staged sit-ins on railway lines after clashes with right-wing Hindus earlier on Monday.

The call for a strike across the western state of Maharashtra led to largely peaceful protests, but life in many parts of Mumbai was disrupted with the Dalits pelting buses with stones and deflating tyres in some areas.

Railway lines and some major roads leading into the city were blocked.

The Dalits, who rank at the bottom of India's ancient caste hierarchy, called the strike in protest against attacks from right-wing groups in the city of Pune on Monday.

The strike shut businesses and schools in Mumbai and other cities across the state.

"The government did not arrest the perpetrators of violence in Pune. Hindu group members were beating Dalits and the police were just watching from afar," said protester Sandeep Kamble.